Over the past 10 years, the World Bank has given $5.8 billon in support to Turkey's energy sector to improve the reliability of generation and supply of green energy and energy efficiency, a World Bank representative said on Tuesday.

During the International Geothermal Conference (IGC), of which Anadolu Agency is the global communication partner, Sameer Shukla, practice manager of Europe and Central Asia, Energy and Extractives Global Practice of the World Bank said that the bank has collaborated with the Turkish government on reforms in Turkey's energy market.

These include reforms to the energy market law for electricity, gas, renewable energy, increasingly working with energy efficiency, the establishment of an energy sector regulatory authority, energy price reforms, the creation of a functional electricity market and large-scale introduction of natural gas, the restructuring of state-owned energy enterprises.

"In the future, the bank will focus on improving Turkey's energy security and mix through investments in power transmission, gas transmission and storage capacity, increasing savings thanks to further investments in energy efficiency, and increasing use of renewable resources such as wind, solar and geothermal," he explained.

The need for Turkey's Geothermal Development Project (TGDP)

Shukla explained with the unprecedented growth of Turkey's geothermal sector over the last decade with the development of more projects, there is a necessity to have a project fully focused on all aspects of geothermal energy.

He added that the two components of the TGDP address two key bottlenecks, the "risk sharing mechanism for resource confirmation and secondly the loan facility for resource development."

He said that in 2017, the TGDP included $250 million from the World Bank with $39.8 million from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development Bank under the Clean Technology Fund.

"The program objective is to scale up private sector investment in geothermal energy development in Turkey," he said and added that Turkish citizens will benefit economically and with more employment opportunities.

Turkey to grow its geothermal installation

Ufuk Senturk, the president of Turkey's Geothermal Electricity Power Plant Investors Association said that Turkey’s potential in the geothermal energy is 1.9 thousand megawatts with the addition of licensed and under construction projects that will be realized in the near future.

The country currently has 37 geothermal power plants with an installed capacity of 860 megawatts, he noted, adding that 322 megawatts will be added to that amount in the last quarter of 2017.